The conference room smelled of expensive coffee and nervous energy.
Rajesh, the CMO of a fast-growing D2C brand in Bangalore, sat across from his agency partners, staring at a deck that had taken three months to create. The campaign was beautiful—cinematic shots, a celebrity cameo, a storyline that had made two junior executives tear up during the internal presentation. The creative had already won a pitch award. Industry publications were interested in covering it.
Three weeks after launch, the numbers told a different story.
The campaign had generated 2.3 million impressions. Exactly 847 clicks. And 12 conversions. Twelve. For a campaign that cost ₹50 lakhs to produce and another ₹30 lakhs to promote.
“But it’s award-worthy content,” the creative director said, somewhat defensively.
Rajesh closed his laptop. “Awards don’t pay my bills.”
The Creativity Trap That’s Costing Indian Brands Crores
If you work in marketing in India today, you’ve either been in this room, or you will be soon.
According to a 2024 report by the Content Marketing Institute, 72% of B2C marketers in India say creating engaging content is their biggest challenge. But here’s the twist: when asked what “engaging” means, 81% defined it as “creative” or “original.” Only 19% mentioned “relevant to audience needs.”
We’ve confused creativity with effectiveness. And it’s bleeding budgets dry.
The problem isn’t that creativity is bad. The problem is that we’ve made it the hero of the story, when it should be the supporting actor. The real hero? Context.
What We Mean When We Say “Context”
Context isn’t a buzzword. It’s not about “being relatable” or “understanding your audience”—though those are parts of it.
Context is the intersection of three things:
Where your audience is (Platform, mindset, moment in their day) What they’re trying to do (The job they’re hiring your content to do) What they already believe (Their existing knowledge, biases, and barriers)
A piece of content can be wildly creative and completely useless if it ignores any of these three elements.
Let’s break this down with something we all understand: food delivery apps.
The Swiggy-Zomato Masterclass in Context
Both Swiggy and Zomato create content that goes viral regularly. But notice something: their content is rarely “creative” in the traditional advertising sense. There are no elaborate storylines, no celebrity endorsements (mostly), no cinematic production value.
What they do have is perfect context.
When Zomato tweets “Okay, who ordered butter chicken to a gym?” at 9 PM on a Wednesday, it works because:
- Platform context: Twitter users are doomscrolling, looking for something to laugh at
- Timing context: Late evening, when people are deciding what to order for dinner
- Cultural context: Indians have a complex relationship with fitness and food—we all know someone who’s done this
The creativity is minimal. The context is everything.
Compare this to a hypothetical campaign: a beautifully shot 2-minute film about “the journey of food from farm to table” with orchestral music and dramatic lighting. It might win awards. But will it make someone order dinner? Probably not. Because it ignores the context of why people open Zomato in the first place.
According to Dentsu’s 2024 India Content Marketing Report, contextual content sees 3.2x higher engagement rates than “creative-first” content in India. Yet, brands continue to allocate 70% of their content budgets to high-production creative pieces.
The Real Story Behind “Viral” Indian Content
Let’s talk about Amul’s topical ads—arguably India’s longest-running content success story.
For over 50 years, Amul has been commenting on current events through simple, illustrated ads. The production cost? Minimal. The creative complexity? Basic puns and a cartoon mascot.
Yet, these ads generate more genuine engagement than campaigns that cost 100x more.
Why? Because Amul understands the context of the cultural conversation. When India wins a cricket match, when a political event unfolds, when a Bollywood controversy breaks—Amul is there, within hours, with a reaction that feels like it came from your WhatsApp group, not a corporate boardroom.
The insight: People don’t share creative content. They share content that helps them participate in a conversation they’re already having.
A 2024 study by the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore found that 67% of shared branded content in India falls into three categories:
- Memes and humor that comment on current events (34%)
- Practical information or life hacks (22%)
- Content that helps people express an identity or opinion (11%)
Notice what’s missing? “Beautiful storytelling,” “emotional narratives,” “production value.”
When Big Budgets Meet Small Results
Here’s a pattern we’ve seen repeatedly across Indian brands:
Scenario A: A Mumbai-based fashion e-commerce brand spends ₹40 lakhs on a campaign featuring models in exotic locations, professional cinematography, and an “empowerment” message. Result: 15,000 website visits, 230 purchases, ₹4.8 lakh in revenue.
Scenario B: The same brand’s social media manager creates a Instagram Reel showing “5 ways to style the same kurta for different occasions” using their phone and natural lighting. Cost: ₹0. Result: 89,000 views, 4,200 website visits, 340 purchases, ₹7.2 lakh in revenue.
What’s the difference? Scenario B answered a question the audience was already asking. It fit the context of how people use Instagram (quick, practical content while scrolling). It solved a real problem (styling versatility) rather than projecting an aspirational lifestyle.
The Flipkart Festival Playbook
During the Big Billion Days sale, Flipkart doesn’t rely on emotional storytelling or elaborate creative. Instead, they create hundreds of contextual content pieces:
- “How to identify fake discounts” (addresses skepticism)
- “Top 10 products under ₹500” (fits budget-conscious shopping context)
- “What to buy if you have only ₹1000” (removes decision paralysis)
- Live countdown timers and real-time inventory updates (creates urgency in the moment)
Each piece is created with one question in mind: “What is the user trying to do right now?”
That’s context. And it works.
According to RedSeer Consulting’s 2024 report, Flipkart’s Big Billion Days generated over ₹38,000 crores in gross merchandise value in 2023. Not because of creative excellence, but because of contextual relevance at scale.
Why Indian Brands Keep Getting This Wrong
The problem starts with how we brief content.
Most creative briefs in India still follow this structure:
- Campaign objective
- Target audience
- Key message
- Tone and manner
- “Be creative!”
Notice what’s missing? Context.
Where will this content be consumed? What will the audience be doing when they see it? What conversation is already happening in their minds? What do they already believe, and what barrier are we addressing?
Without these questions, creativity becomes decoration. And decoration doesn’t drive business results.
A 2023 survey by MICA (Mudra Institute of Communications) found that 78% of Indian brand managers evaluate content based on “creativity scores” and “aesthetic appeal” before considering performance metrics. This backwards prioritization explains why so many campaigns look beautiful in award show reels but disappear without a trace in the real world.
The Context-First Content Framework
So how do you actually do this? Here’s a framework that works:
- Start with the Scroll, Not the Story
Before you think about what you want to say, think about where your audience will see it. Are they:
- Scrolling Instagram during their commute?
- Reading LinkedIn during work hours?
- Watching YouTube before bed?
- Searching Google for solutions?
Each of these contexts demands different content. A thought-provoking essay works on LinkedIn at 11 AM. The same content on Instagram at 8 PM will get scrolled past.
- Identify the Job-to-be-Done
Why is someone consuming content at this moment?
When someone opens Zomato, the job is: “Help me decide what to eat, fast.” When someone searches “best laptops under 50000,” the job is: “Help me make a confident purchase decision.” When someone scrolls Instagram Reels, the job is: “Entertain me while I decompress.”
Your content must do that job. Anything else—no matter how creative—is distraction.
- Match Belief State, Don’t Fight It
If your audience believes “healthy food is boring,” creating content that shows a salad with the caption “Eat clean!” fights their belief. It won’t work.
Instead, create content that acknowledges their belief and offers a bridge: “We also thought healthy was boring. Then we found these 5 recipes that taste like cheat meals.”
This is what Licious does brilliantly. They don’t lecture about protein intake. They share recipes for “butter chicken” and “keema pav” that happen to use their products. They match the belief state (I want tasty food) rather than fighting it.
The Data Doesn’t Lie
Let’s look at some hard numbers:
- HubSpot’s 2024 India Marketing Report: Content with high contextual relevance sees 2.8x higher conversion rates than creative-first content
- Google India’s Consumer Insights: 76% of Indian consumers say they prefer “helpful content” over “entertaining content” when making purchase decisions
- LinkedIn India’s B2B Study: Contextual thought leadership generates 4.3x more leads than brand storytelling campaigns
- Meta India’s Content Performance Data: Short-form, contextual content (Reels, Stories) has 6x higher engagement than long-form brand films
The market has spoken. Context wins.
What This Means for Your Next Campaign
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: your next great campaign probably won’t win awards. It won’t make people in the industry say “wow, that’s so creative.” It might not even look that impressive in your portfolio.
But it will work.
Because it will meet your audience where they are, answer the questions they’re actually asking, and fit seamlessly into the moment they encounter it.
Think about the last piece of branded content you personally engaged with—not as a marketer, but as a human. Chances are, it wasn’t the most creative thing you saw that day. It was the most relevant thing. It appeared at the right time, on the right platform, and addressed something you were already thinking about.
That’s the content your brand needs to create.
The Path Forward
The shift from creativity-first to context-first doesn’t mean abandoning good creative work. It means grounding that creativity in strategic understanding.
Great Indian brands already understand this. They’ve stopped asking “How do we make this creative?” and started asking “How do we make this useful, right now, for this specific person, in this specific moment?”
That’s a harder question to answer. It requires more research, more audience understanding, more strategic thinking. But it’s the question that actually matters.
Because at the end of the quarter, when you’re sitting in that conference room looking at the numbers, no one’s going to ask if your content was creative enough.
They’re going to ask if it worked.
And if you’ve built your content on context, not just creativity, the answer will be yes.
At getSHIFT, we believe great marketing isn’t about making noise—it’s about making sense. Context-driven content strategies are at the heart of what we do, helping brands move from vanity metrics to real business results. Because at the end of the day, the only content that matters is content that works.